Jack Elway Dies at Age 69 / John Elway's dad coached Stanford, San Jose State

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 17, 2001

Jack Elway, a former Stanford and San Jose State head football coach and one of the creators of the spread offense, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack.

Elway, who died at age 69 at his Palm Springs home, is best known for being the father of John Elway, who quarterbacked the Denver Broncos to two Super Bowl championships. But in football circles, Elway is known for his offensive innovations.

"He was at the leading edge of the passing game," said Bob Murphy, now a Stanford football broadcaster who was San Jose State's athletic director when Elway was hired as the Spartans' head coach in 1979.

Elway's innovative passing game helped the Spartans to winning records in four of his five seasons there, and his San Jose State team beat Stanford three straight years. In Elway's first three seasons at San Jose State, his offensive coordinator was Dennis Erickson, and Erickson and Elway are given most of the credit for inventing the one-back, spread offense that emphasizes the short-passing game.

"The ingenuity he had offensively has spread throughout the country and has certainly had an influence on my strategy and my coaching," Erickson said. "Obviously, he (Elway) was a pioneer of all that stuff, and used it before a lot of others."

Erickson said the first to use the spread offense was Jack Neumeier at Granada Hills, where John Elway played his high school football. Jack Elway then used it at Cal State Northridge and brought it to San Jose State.

Photo: HANDOUT

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Head Coach Jack Elway, Stanford Football.

Head Coach Jack Elway, Stanford Football.

Photo: HANDOUT

Jack Elway Dies at Age 69 / John Elway's dad coached Stanford, San Jose State

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The spread offense has become increasingly popular in recent years in college football, enabling teams that lacked the depth of talent -- teams like South Carolina, Northwestern and Erickson's Oregon State squad -- to jump into the national rankings.

"He deserves a lot of credit for creating the excitement of the quick- passing game," said Tom Beckett, now the athletic director at Yale, who worked in the athletic departments at San Jose State and Stanford when Elway was at each school.

While head coach at San Jose State, Elway beat Stanford in 1981 and '82, when his son, John, was the Cardinal's star quarterback. Partly because of his success against Stanford, Elway was hired to become the Cardinal's head coach in 1984. He was Stanford head coach for five seasons, and his best season was 1986, when the Cardinal finished 8-4 and lost to Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

Stanford's stars that season were quarterback John Paye, running back Brad Muster and linebacker Dave Wyman.

Besides his passing innovations, Elway was known for his wit.

"He always brought humor and was always able to put things in proper perspective,"' Beckett said.

Elway was fired at Stanford following the 1988 season by Andy Geiger, then Stanford's athletic director. Elway refused to speak to the media about his dismissal for weeks after his termination. One Bay Area reporter was assigned to stand outside Elway's house so he could get a reaction if Elway ever came out. After several days of the stakeout, Elway invited the reporter inside and gave him breakfast, although Elway did not comment on his dismissal. The reporter was invited in on a daily basis after that, although Elway still did not comment.

"He was a cherished member of the Stanford family," current Stanford athletic director Ted Leland said, "and one of our finest coaches. Throughout his college coaching career, Jack proved to be an innovator, a motivator, a coach with the highest integrity and a commitment to student-athletes. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Elway family."